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August 3, 2009
MOX fuel fabrication facility at SRS: One of the most expensive, most maligned but, many say, most valuable projects being constructed in the federal weapons complex
In 1999, NNSA signed a contract with a consortium, now called Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC to design, build and operate the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site.
Groundbreaking on the facility occurred on Aug. 1, 2007. In the two years since, significant progress has been made. Overall design, procurement and construction activities are proceeding on schedule and within budget, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. Eight of the 17 auxiliary buildings needed to support construction and operation of the MOX facility have been finished, including the recently completed MOX Administration Building.
[Source: Mike Gellatly (Aiken Standard), "MOX construction marks second year", Aiken Standard (South Carolina), August 3, 2009
March 3, 2008
This is from the front page of today's The Guardian, of Manchester, England.
July 3, 2006
Belgonucleaire to drop out of MOX business, 1973-vintage plant to close at end of this month
Belgium: Belgonucleaire's P0 mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Dessel will close at end of July. The plant began operation in 1973, with commercial MOX production starting in 1986. Cumulative production of MOX using Belgonucleaire's MIMAS process from the start in 1986 until the end of production in 2006 will be 660 tonnes heavy metal (tHM). The plant's closure will leave Areva's newer Melox plant and British Nuclear Group's (BNG's) Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) as the only commercial MOX suppliers in the near term. (Nuclear Fuel, 3 July, p5; see also News Briefing 02.31-7)
[Source: World Nuclear Association, WNA
August 15, 2005
Plutonium recycling in LWRs has reached industrial maturity
Recycling of the recovered plutonium in commercial light water reactors (LWRs) is currently practiced in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. The number of mixed-oxide (MOX) assemblies reloaded each year in a large variety of reactors demonstrates that plutonium recycling in LWRs has reached industrial maturity.
[Source: Dieter Porsch, et al., "Plutonium Recycling in Light Water Reactors at Framatome ANP: Status and Trends", Nuclear Technology 151(2)159-167, August 2005]
October 1, 2004
US weapons plutonium despatched
A shipment of 140 kg of weapons-grade plutonium oxide has left South Carolina for France. The material will make up four mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies for trial use at the US Catawba nuclear plant in 2005. The fuel pellets made at Cadarache will be fabricated into fuel assemblies at the Melox plant at Marcoule. The USA has earmarked 34 tonnes of weapons plutonium for disposition as MOX in power generation, and plans a MOX fabrication plant at Savannah River in South Carolina to utilise it. Under a 2000 agreement, Russia is also to dispose of 34 tonnes of weapons plutonium in reactor fuel. [SpentFuel 27/9/04, Nuclear Engineering International 27/9/04]
[Source: World Nuclear Association Weekly Digest, October 1, 2004
June 3, 2004
* Catawba MOX fuel use - ASLB invites oral public comment (June 15)
March 27, 2004
* MOX and PuO2 powder processing - unique aspects of risk-significant processes
March 26, 2004
* MOX - gallium considerations and limits explained by Framatome ANP
March 19, 2004
* MOX - Duke explains why Catawba rather than McGuire or Oconee
* MOX - Duke's reply to spent fuel transport questions
March 2, 2004
Japanese MOX program comes back from coma
Pluthermal power is the Japanese nuclear industry's term for power generated through the burning of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. The method is a keystone in Japan's nuclear-fuel recycling program. The program has essentially sat inactive for years due to a public backlash following a series of scandals involving MOX-fuel data forgeries and cover-ups of accidents at nuclear plants. That's about to change. The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan has said it will burn MOX fuel at 16 to 18 nuclear reactors by fiscal 2010. Kyushu Electric Power Co. (Kyuden) announced Monday that it hopes to start churning out pluthermal power at a nuclear plant it operates in Genkai, Saga Prefecture, as early as fiscal 2008. Osaka-based Kansai Electric Power Co. has also expressed its intent to resume its pluthermal pursuits at its Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture by fiscal 2008. Kansai Electric Power is a step ahead, claiming it will introduce MOX fuel at two reactors in Takahama by fiscal 2008, and at one or two reactors at a plant in Oi, Fukui Prefecture. The firm plans to place orders for MOX fuel with an overseas reprocessing firm by the end of this fiscal year.
[Source: Asahi Shimbun, Kyuden eyes saga for pluthermal plans, March 2, 2004]
January 15, 2004
MOX fuel fails at lower temperature, French report
In October, scientists from France's Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire gave a presentation to NRC staff about their research on MOX fuel. The presentation caught the imagination of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, which promptly filed a motion urging the ASLB handling the Catawba/McGuire MOX case to consider the French findings. Duke has objected, arguing that information on this subject has long been available, and the intervenors could have reasonably raised it along with their other contentions. Even some of the "new" French data has been in public domain since 1998, and the major findings were discussed at a public meeting in 2002 at which the intervenor was represented. ASLBs often reject such contentions raised late in the process, to prevent the process from never ending.
[Refs: Paul Nowell (AP business writer), "Hearing on Duke's MOX fuel plans continues", Associated Press, January 15, 2004 3:39 pm ET; David A. Repka, et al. (attorneys for Duke Energy), "Answer of Duke Energy Corporation to the 'Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's second supplemental Petition to intervene'", December 23, 2003 (ACN ML033650316)]
MOX fuel track record at dozens of n-plants in Europe
Duke officials point to the successful use of MOX fuel in nearly three dozen European nuclear plants.
[Ref: Jason Cato (Rock Hill Herald), "Group to argue against MOX fuel plan at hearing today", The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), January 15, 2004, p. 1B]
MOX fuel could be stolen during transport
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League representatives have argued that terrorists would have a better chance of obtaining plutonium as it is shipped to U.S. nuclear plants.
[Ref: Jason Cato (Rock Hill Herald), "Group to argue against MOX fuel plan at hearing today", The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), January 15, 2004, p. 1B]
September 30, 2003
Fugen retrospective - future R&D, like breeders, should do better at minimizing costs and producing export sales
Operations at the Fugen advanced thermal converter reactor, located in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, ended in March. It was Japan's first power-generating nuclear reactor created solely with domestically developed technology. It uses mixed oxide fuel (MOX), made of plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel and uranium. Fugen has consumed the largest number of MOX fuel rods of any nuclear plant in the world -- 772 -- since it opened in 1979. The cost of planning and constructing the plant was approximately 450 billion yen. An oversight committee of the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, in a report to be released today, reportedly notes that it costs three times as much to generate electricity at Fugen than it does at an ordinary nuclear reactor.
[Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, "Panel says govt's nuclear reactors waste money", The Daily Yomiuri, September 30, 2003]
August 13, 2003
Japan N-energy policy blueprint lifts MOX, breeder programs
Japan: The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has released a nuclear energy policy blueprint which calls for continued pursuit of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel program and the restart of the Monju fast-breeder reactor (FBR). The commission - which operates under the Cabinet Office - is conducting a review of Japan's nuclear energy policy following the plant data falsification issues uncovered in 2002. The blueprint is designed to serve as a basis for a long-term nuclear energy plan to be published by the government in 2004. (Nuclear Market Review, 8 August, p3; SpentFUEL, 11 August, p3; see also News Briefing 97.06-7)
[Source: World Nuclear Association, WNA News Briefing NB03.32-8, August 12, 2003]
June 23, 2003
* Japan urged to stop its rush to reprocess spent fuel
May 1, 2000
* MOX fuel standard - make weapons Pu as inaccessible as the Pu in normal LEU spent fuel